Adidas Sold a Million Shoes Made of Ocean Plastic

Adidas sold a million pairs of
shoes made from oceanplastic last year, according to CEO Kasper Rorsted.

In 2015, the German sportswear giant partnered with
Parley for the Oceans, an environmental initiative addressing major threats to the world's oceans, to develop products made from recycled marine plastic. After much anticipation, they introduced three versions of the UltraBoost shoe last year.

"We last year sold 1 million shoes made out of ocean plastic," Rorsted told
CNBC on Wednesday.

Each pair uses an average of 11 plastic bottles and incorporates recycled plastic into the laces, heel webbing, heel lining and sock liner covers.

In 2016, the company pledged to
phase out plastic bags in its 2,900 retail stores around the world, saving 70 million plastic shopping bags by switching to paper bags in its stores.

In another sign that Adidas is ramping up its commitment to sustainability, attendees at the SXSW conference in Houston this week
heard Eric Liedtke, the head of Global Brands, saying that Adidas wants to produce all of its products—from footwear to apparel—out of recycled plastic from the ocean by 2024.

Sixteen-year-old climate action leader Greta Thunberg stood alongside European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Thursday in Brussels as he indicated—after weeks of climate strikes around the world inspired by the Swedish teenager—that the European Union has heard the demands of young people and pledged more than $1 trillion over the next seven years to address the crisis of a rapidly heating planet.

In the financial period beginning in 2021, Juncker said, the EU will devote a quarter of its budget to solving the crisis.

A new study reveals the health risks posed by the making, use and disposal of plastics. Jeffrey Phelps / Getty Images

With eight million metric tons of plastic entering the world's oceans every year, there is growing concern about the proliferation of plastics in the environment. Despite this, surprisingly little is known about the full impact of plastic pollution on human health.

But a first-of-its-kind study released Tuesday sets out to change that. The study, Plastic & Health: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet, is especially groundbreaking because it looks at the health impacts of every stage in the life cycle of plastics, from the extraction of the fossil fuels that make them to their permanence in the environment. While previous studies have focused on particular products, manufacturing processes or moments in the creation and use of plastics, this study shows that plastics pose serious health risks at every stage in their production, use and disposal.